Dream Cast
by iammemyself
Summary: Do you control your world, or do you let it control you? Two-part one-shot.
1. Chapter 1

DREAM CAST

I have an interesting life.

I live in a place filled with checkerboard hills and loop-de-loops that rise out of the ground. Tails doesn't understand them. He says that there's no reason for nature to create loop-de-loops like that. Especially not in perfect circles.

I don't really care. I love that split second when I hit the top of the loop, when I slow down just enough to almost not make it around, and then throw myself forward to complete the circle. God what a rush.

I live in a place where nothing ever changes. I wake up and the flowers are still dancing, the waves are sparkling, and the clouds hang in the sky. This makes Tails nervous. He says there's something scary about it. He asks me where the waterfall on the mountain comes from. He says for the water to fall down the mountain, it has to come from somewhere… but there's no lake on top of the mountain.

I've been up and down and all around the mountain, and I don't know where the water comes from. All I know is it's kind of pretty, that waterfall, and I love lying under it in the heat of day and relaxing on hot afternoons.

I live in a place where every once in a while an egg-shaped man with a long moustache and glasses will try to capture all the animals and make them run robots. I think he wants to take over the zones. I don't know for sure. I've never spoken to him. Sometimes Tails asks me why we don't just ask him to stop, we've beaten him a million times, and why doesn't he just stop?

I like beating the egg-man. I like saving all the animals, and running through the zones as fast as I can so I can catch him. Sometimes it's one set of zones, sometimes another. I run through them a different way each time. One day I'll try to beat my old speed records, another day I'll collect as many rings as I can, another day I'll free as many animals as I can.

(Where do all those animals go when I free them? I never see them again.)

I'm not chasing the egg-man today. Today I'm sitting on top of one of the loop-de-loops and wondering where the star-post went. It's like the rings. It appears and reappears when they do. I don't know where the rings go, but when I'm chasing the egg-man they stop me from being hurt too badly. I see a shadow and I look up to see Tails. He's breathing hard, and he's tired when he sits next to me.

(Why doesn't he get any better at flying? He flies every day)

"Sonic… I was… I was flying the _Tornado_ and… and I saw something strange."

I wiggle my feet over the side of the loop.

"There's a… a wall, Sonic. There's a wall behind the Doomsday Zone."

I like the Doomsday Zone. Sometimes when I go there, I have a lot of powerful shiny stones. They make me shiny and powerful too. When I have seven, I turn into Super Sonic. When I have 14, which doesn't happen a lot, I turn into Hyper Sonic. It feels so good to have the shiny stones, I always try to find them but I don't always.

Tails is pulling on my arm. "Sonic! Sonic! C'mon! I need to you come see!"

I nod at him and jump to my feet. I never go to the Doomsday Zone if I'm not chasing the egg-man. I mostly stay in the Green Hill Zone.

(How do I know what the zones are called?)

I start running. I don't look to see if Tails is following me. I know he is. And if I go too fast for him, he'll catch up. He always does. I'll look up, and see him flying up to me with that smile on his face.

When we finally reach it, I do have to wait a minute for Tails. I tap my foot and look at my watch. I don't have all day.

(Why am I in such a big hurry?)

"Sonic, look at it! Isn't it strange? It's… it's not like any wall I've ever seen before!"

It's a really, really big wall, and it's so long and so tall we can't see around it. It's brown, with long brown lines from top to bottom on it.

"S… Sonic, what is it?"

I stretch my hand out to touch it, but Tails' little hand reaches out and grabs my arm. "No, don't! Don't touch it!"

I look at him, making my best adult face. With my brows stern and a frown. He doesn't like it when I do that.

"I… something bad'll happen if you touch it, Sonic!"

I pull my arm away and fold it into my other arm. After all this time Tails is still a scaredy-cat. I tap my foot. He doesn't like it when I do that.

"Sonic, please? Can we go? I… I just wanted to know if you knew what it was, that's all! We can go home now!"

I rub underneath my nose. I _don't_ know what it was, but I can't tell Tails that. I'm the big brother. I'm supposed to know everything. I let him fidget for a second, and then I shrug and start to walk away. Tails smiles and runs after me.

After a long time I manage to get rid of Tails so I can be by myself for a while. I run and run and run as fast as I can. I have these really cool sneakers that let me run as fast as I want. If I don't wear them, running hurts my feet, so I don't take them off.

(Where did I get these sneakers from?)

I run and run and run and hop and spin and twirl and jump and run and run and run. I don't know where I'm going, but I will when I get there.

(How will I know when I get there?)

When I finally stop, I'm dizzy and fuzzy, and I feel like I'm floating. I'm really happy too. This is the fun part about running. The part after isn't so fun, when I start shaking and I can't see straight and I feel really sick, but the part before is worth it. When the world stops spinning so much I open my eyes.

I ran all the way to the wall.

It's so big. I've never seen anything so big. Not even the egg-man's ships or giant floating buildings. I think about trying to run around the wall. It looks like it'll never end. I wonder if the egg-man built it.

But why would he put a giant wall behind the Doomsday Zone?

I want to know what it's doing there. I want to break it, to find out what's behind it. New zones to explore maybe? Where is the egg-man anyway? I haven't seen him in a long, long time.

I reach out to touch the wall. If it's not really hard I can spin-dash through it.

(Why are my quills so sharp they can break through walls?)

I touch the wall.

A little jolt runs through me and my fur stands up. I shudder, and my hand comes off the wall. I don't like it. I feel different. Tails was right. I shouldn'tve touched it.

I start running back to the Green Hill Zone. I run and run and run and jump and twirl and spin and hop and run and run and run. When I finally stop I look around for Tails. But I see this weird shadow on the ground I've never seen before. I look up, up, up to see what's causing the shadow…

There's… there's giant shapes in the air. I don't know what they are. They look like the shapes on the _Tornado_. I know those are letters, and they say Sonic. The shapes in the sky don't say Sonic though.

"You touched the wall, didn't you?"

I look behind me, and there's Tails. He looks scared. He's swishing his tails back and forth, back and forth, back and forth, like he always does.

(When was the last time he stopped doing that?)

I nod at him and cross my arms.

"Those are words and numbers." Tails steps closer to me, and points up at the sky. "I have them on my computer."

I jump a little in excitement. Words in the sky! That's new. I like new things.

(When was the last time something new happened to me?)

"It says, SCORE, and then a zero. Then it says TIME, and then three zeroes. And then it says, RINGS, and another zero."

He tugs on my arm, and points at the ground.

"That says SONIC, and then it says X 3."

Sonic X 3? What does that mean?

"And there's a picture of you." Tails is holding onto my arm real tight. "There's a picture of you, Sonic."

Oh that's cool! A picture of me? But… what do the words mean?

"Sonic, I'm scared."

I push him off. He's holding my arm too tight.

"Sonic, why is this happening? Why did touching the wall make that come?"

I shake my head at him as if the answer was easy to figure out.

He looks very sad. "Sonic, I have a question and… and I need you to tell me the answer."

I pat him on the head and give him my best big brother look.

"Where did we come from?"

I stop looking at him and turn around.

I haven't thought about that in a long time.

I don't know where I came from. I just am. I know I was here first, because I remember there being me and no one else but the egg-man. And then one day Tails was there. And then one day the red spiny guy was here too. I don't know if he has a name. I've never spoken to him. I call him Knuckles. I always try to be his friend and he always laughs at me. It's always just like that when I see him. I don't hang around with him like I do Tails.

(Why does it always happen the exact same way?)

I shrug. It's not important anyway, where we came from. All that matters is that we are.

"Sonic, I want to know where I came from! Where did I come from, Sonic?"

I shake my head. He's just being silly now.

"Sonic, I need to know! Where did I come from!"

I just look at him.

He starts crying.

I've never seen him cry before. I know he's younger than me, but he's very old for his age. He never cries.

Tails runs away, and his voice echoes in my head.

(Where _did_ I come from?)


	2. Chapter 2

I haven't seen Tails in a while. He's been gone a very long time. I'm starting to worry about him. I want to go look for him but if he comes back and I'm not here he might get scared. So I jump up onto one of the loops and wait for him. I don't like waiting, and I don't do it a lot, but for Tails I will. For Tails, I will be patient.

When the plane finally appears through the clouds I wave at him, and hope he can see me. In a few minutes he comes over, spinning his tails around, and lands next to me. He sits down. He looks very sad. I poke him.

"Sonic… I've been flying the _Tornado_ for a long, long time. I… I tried to fly around the wall."

I grab him in excitement. He pushes me away.

"There's nothing on the other side, Sonic."

I tilt my head and look at him. Nothing? How can there be nothing behind the wall?

Tails pulls his knees into himself. "Sonic… this is only the second time I've ever done something outside the Green Hill Zone. Why do we stay here, Sonic? Why don't we explore the zones when we're not chasing the egg-man?"

I shrug. How should I know? I like it here. Why would I leave?

"Why did the wall shock us? That means… that means there's electricity in it. And I flew everywhere, and I didn't see the egg-man, or Knuckles either."

I shrug again and dangle my feet over the side of the loop.

(Where are they? Where do they go?)

"Sonic... I don't think we're real. I think we're in… some sort of game."

I hit him. Not real? Of course I'm real.

"Think about it! How long have we been here? It always stays the same! Why do I keep having to put a rocket on the _Tornado_ when I never take it off? Why does the egg-man always do everything the same way, when we do it different? And…" He takes a breath and buries his face in his knees, then lifts his head and says, "How come you always do everything different, but I do only sometimes? How come you come back to life after you have no rings?"

I scratch my head. I never even noticed such things.

"Why are those numbers there? Why do they change sometimes but stay the same the rest of the time?"

(Why is Tails thinking of all this and I'm not?)

I shake my head at him, and I jump off the top of the loop. I'm not listening to this anymore. He's wrong. I am real. I am. I am.

(How do I know if I'm real or not?)

Tails is right. There's nothing behind the wall. It's just blackness. There's nothing after the Doomsday Zone. The world… ends after the Doomsday Zone.

I'm scared. I wish Tails hadn't told me anything. I wish Tails had just stayed in the Green Hill Zone. The world has an end, and I'm part of a game? I don't like it. I don't like it. I want to be real. I was happy before and now I'm not. I'm scared. I don't like it. I don't like it.

I go back to the Green Hill Zone, and as I'm going there I realize that I'm going there the same way I left it, only backwards.

I go all the way to the beginning of the Green Hill Zone, and look at it. I've never tried to go before the Green Hill Zone. So I go to the beginning of the zone and try to keep going.

I can't.

The world… the world has a beginning and an end.

My chest feels really tight and I look around frantically. My world is limitless. My world is forever. I can run and run and run and run and run and

Then I realize I'm screaming inside my head but I have. No. Voice.

I press on the… the wall that's the beginning of the Green Hill Zone and slowly sink to the ground. All this time, and I never noticed that my voice was inside my head.

Is Tails's voice inside my head too? Is my whole life inside my head? Now that I know I'm not real, what _is_ real?

Where is Tails. I need to…

Talk to him.

But he can't hear me.

I have no voice.

"Sonic?"

I open my eyes. I've been sitting against this wall for a long, long time, waiting for him to come and see it because I can't tell him about it. He usually comes to find me. I reach up and touch his hand to the wall.

His eyes widen in surprise.

"There's… there's a wall here too?"

I nod at him.

Tails looks scared now. I think he looks just as scared as I must have looked.

(I… I don't even _know_ what I look like)

"The world has a beginning and an end…"

He slumps to the ground and starts to cry. I reach over and hug him. I don't understand what's going on, why touching the wall made us think this way, made us see those letter and numbers. I'm just as scared as he is.

After a while I let go and stand up. I need to run for a while. That will help.

(How come I'm the only animal that can run like this? How come I look so different from all the other animals?)

After a long time I go back to the Green Hill Zone. Tails is gone. I hop back up on top of my loop and wait for him. I hope he's okay. I kinda abandoned him.

I sit there and wait, and wait.

He doesn't come.

I don't see him until the next time the golden rings appear, and I can see the springs hidden in the treetops, until the numbers above my head start to change and the little robots with the little animals appear. He just follows me like usual, and sometimes I lose him and he comes back again like usual, and he does exactly what I do like usual.

(I really am in a game, aren't I?)

After the game ends I try to catch Tails, I miss him and I'm kinda lonely, but he just shakes his head sadly at me and flies away. I don't know where he's going, but I'm gonna respect his privacy.

I go back to sitting on my loop and I decide to think about this.

So I'm… I'm in a game. And when the game isn't being played, I live here. The game has a beginning and an end, and I can't get out of it.

That scares me. I don't want to be trapped. I don't want to be trapped in a game.

Wait.

When the game isn't being played, I live here.

Why don't we explore the zones when the game isn't being played? That sounds like fun. I know there are lots of places to go, and maybe even some places I've never been before.

Suddenly I realize something.

No, my world's not as big as I thought it was. And I'm not who I thought I was. And that's okay. I can sit here on this loop all day, and wait for someone to tell me what to do in _my_ world, or… I can go decide for myself.

I can make my little world bigger.

I can believe.

I stand up. I have to go find Tails, and tell him what I've found out. Maybe I'm not real, but that doesn't matter. What matters is what I do now that I know. And maybe I've got no audible voice. But I still got lots of things to say, and lots of ways to say them.

I'll keep on running.


End file.
